Reducing groundwater pollution by toxic substances: Procedures and policies

One major source of water-related health problems is the improper disposal of toxic substances in the environment. Toxic materials leaching from unregulated and unlined pits, ponds, lagoons, and landfills have created a widespread environmental nightmare in the United States and many other parts of the world. At present, there are two major and interrelated components of this problem in the United States. The first is the issue of cleaning up abandoned disposal sites that pose actual or potential threats to water supplies. The second aspect of the problem concerns the necessity of siting proper management, treatment, or disposal facilities in the future. Priorities must be set to allow efficient, effective, and equitable allocation of the scarce resources that are available for accomplishing these tasks.This article examines a number of the issues involved in setting these priorities, and presents the results obtained from a study of risk estimation and evaluation in the context of groundwater contamination by toxic substances. The article introduces a new concept of risk estimation, which is shown to produce more accurate and credible risk analyses. Finally, the relationships between risk credibility and public perceptions of procedural fairness and equity are examined as these factors bear on the institutional aspects of implementing policies for site cleanup and/or facility siting.     

UK interpretation and implementation of the EEC Shellfish directive

The EEC Shellfish Directive is a policy designed to protect and, where necessary, improve the quality of designated shellfish waters. Its implementation within the UK, however, has had no effect upon water quality for two reasons. First, the policy has important defects, having ambiguities concerning public health provisions and lacking designation criteria. Second, UK government has sought to achieve formal compliance, while at the same time ensuring that its full financial impact on public expenditure has been contained. Consequently, only those fisheries which already comply with water quality standards have been designated. Within Wales, one fishery has been designated, while other, commercially more important, but grossly contaminated shellfisheries have not.     

Determining regional water quality patterns and their ecological relationships

A multivariate statistical method for analyzing spatial patterns of water quality in Georgia and Kansas was tested using data in the US Environmental Protection Agency's STORET data system. Water quality data for Georgia and Kansas were organized by watersheds. We evaluated three questions: (a) can distinctive regional water quality patterns be detected and predicted using only a few water quality variables, (b) are regional water quality patterns correlated with terrestrial biotic regions, and (c) are regional water quality patterns correlated with fish distributions? Using existing data, this method can distinguish regions with water quality very different from the average conditions (as in Georgia), but it does not discriminate well between regions that do not have diverse water quality conditions (as in Kansas). Data that are spatially and temporally adequate for representing large regions and for multivariate statistical analysis are available for only a few common water quality parameters. Regional climate, lithology, and biotic regimes all have the potential to affect water quality, and terrestrial biotic regions and fish distributions do compare with regional water quality patterns, especially in a state like Georgia, where watershed characteristics are diverse. Thus, identifiable relationships between watershed characteristics and water quality should allow the development of an integrated landaquatic classification system that would be a valuable tool for resource management. Because geographical distributions of species may be limited by Zoogeographic and environmental factors, the recognition of patterns in fish distributions that correlate with regional water quality patterns could influence management strategies and aid regional assessments.     

SUSPENDED SEDIMENT AND METALS REMOVAL FROM URBAN RUNOFF BY A SMALL LAKE1

ABSTRACT: A small lake in the Chicago Metropolitan Area was from 91 to 95 percent efficient in removing suspended sediment and from 76 to 94 percent efficient in removing copper, iron, lead, and zinc from urban runoff. Sediments accumulated in the lake in the form of an organic-rich mud at an average rate of 20 millimeters per year; this reduced lake storage and covered potential habitat for aquatic organisms. Copper, lead, and zinc concentrations were closely associated with suspended-sediment concentrations and with silt- and clay-sized fractions of lake sediment. Although concentrations of mercury and cadmium were near detection limits in runoff, measurable concentrations of these metals accumulated in the lake sediments.     

NUTRIENT LOADS TO WISCONSIN LAKES: PART I. NITROGEN AND PHOSPHORUS EXPORT COEFFICIENTS1

ABSTRACT: Export coefficients (kg/km²/yr) for dissolved ortho-phosphate (OP), total phosphorus (TP), total inorganic nitrogen (TIN), and total nitrogen (TN) were derived for watersheds in Wisconsin using data bases available for 17 basins from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — National Eutrophication Survey, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Three general land use categories, representative of most regions in Wisconsin, were established: forest, mixed, and agricultural. Data for the 17 basins indicated greater exports of OP. TP, TIN, and TN as the percentage of forest decreased and agriculture increased. These region-specific coefficients are compared to the values reported in the literature representing much broader areas of the U.S.     

LACTOSE NEGATIVE ESCHERICHIA COLI FROM RANGELAND STREAMS: SOURCE,ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE,AND COLICINOGENICITY1

ABSTRACT: Lactose-negative Escherichia coil from cattle feces appeared as yellow, atypical colonies on m-FC medium plates with water samples from rangeland streams. The lactose-negative E. coil may impact stream water quality analyses if infrequent samples are collected; are less antibiotic resistant than the lactose-positive E. coili isolated from rangeland streams; and are colicinogenic toward all the laboratory strains of E. coil examined and toward 61 percent of the lactose-positive E. coil rangeland-stream isolates that were tested. This latter result could explain the potentially low degree of antibiotic resistance transfer from lactose-positive to lactose-negative E. coil. In addition, the colicinogenicity of the lactose-negative E. coil may interfere with microbiological water quality analyses that depend upon lactose fernientations with mixed populations of coliforms.     

DOMESTIC WASTEWATER TREATMENT BY PEATLANDS IN A NORTHERN CLIMATE: A WATER QUALITY STUDY1

ABSTRACT: The use of peatlands as the main form of wastewater treatment in a northern climate was studied for the James Bay Energy Society. The Fontanges campsite (70° 17′ 30″ W; 54° 34′ 00″ N) was chosen as the study site. In less than 1.5 km from the point of discharge BOD₅, COD, total hardness, inorganic carbon, orthophosphates, total phosphorus, ammonia and total nitrogen were reduced by at least 90 percent. The peatland treatment system studied is divided into four components, each having a specific function. The first part combines the action of microorganisms and adsorption on peat, thus reducing the organic content while increasing the inorganic constituents. The second part uses peat to adsorb the inorganic elements already present in the wastewater and those produced in the first part of the system. The third component acts as an aerator, increasing the dissolved oxygen and decreasing the BOD₅ levels of the water. The fourth part removes most of the remaining nutrients, thus acting like a tertiary treatment. Overall, peatlands seemed to be effective in treating domestic settled wastewater in a cold climate.     

Water quality management worldwide

This article analyzes water quality on a global scale. An overview of the global water supply and demand situation is presented first, including regional and country information, as well as data on selected water use patterns. The focus then shifts to a discussion of water pollution, its various causes, impact, and remedies, with emphasis on legal and administrative solutions. Water pollution control expenditures and the resultant achievements are dealt with in the final third of the article, with projections to 1995. A wide variety of published sources was dovetailed to obtain a composite picture and most likely scenario; this was supplemented with primary interviews by the author conducted in North America, Western and Eastern Europe, and Oceania at the start of the 1980s.     

New federalism and state implementation of the Clean Water Act

An important goal of the Reagan administration has been to shift responsibility for many public programs from the US federal government to the states. This New Federalism seeks to restore a proper balance to the federal system and to ensure an effective working partnership between the states and the federal government. Such a partnership is especially important for many environmental laws because these laws often give states primary responsibility for the control and abatement of pollution.This research examines the extent to which the Reagan administration has succeeded in improving intergovernmental environmental relations in terms of state implementation of the Clean Water Act. Data from a 1985 survey of directors of state water quality control programs are compared with responses to a similar survey that the US General Accounting Office conducted in 1979. The latter survey found considerable dissatisfaction on the part of state directors with the quality of their relations with the US Environmental Protection Agency. Although some improvement can be noted between 1979 and 1985, the Reagan administration's efforts to improve intergovernmental relations appear to have been of limited consequence, to the possible detriment of effective implementation of the Clean Water Act.     

EFFECTS OF NO-FLOW RIVER CONDITIONS ON THE PLATTE RIVER WELL FIELD1

ABSTRACT: Effects of no-flow river conditions on the quantity and quality of water in the Platte River well field of the City of Grand Island, Nebraska, were examined utilizing a finite-difference computer simulation model specifically developed for this well field. Results suggest that the effects of these no-flow periods on water quality may be most important. In particular, the no-flow periods eliminate the hydraulic barrier between the well field and an area north of the River that is contaminated with nitrate (concentrations in the 20 to 40 mg/1 NO₃-N range). They also change the direction and velocity of movement of the contaminated ground water. Simulation results indicate that contaminated ground water moves toward the well field with a velocity of 0.42 ft/d after 30 days of no-flow and 1.43 ft/d after 180 days of no-flow. Limiting no-flow conditions to 10 consecutive days would protect the well field.